6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Carl Martin, Pennsylvania
”First let me start with the who and where. My Dream Hunt would be my father, Lee; my brother, Nick; my brother-in-law, Eric and myself hunting grizzly bear in Alaska. The hunt would be a week in a remote camp in the true wilderness of Alaska. The camp would be a log cabin deep in the woods which is accessed by 4-wheel-drive or better yet, a small plane which lands on the lake in front of the camp. The week would be spent doing nothing but hunting and spending time together at camp making memories that will remain with us for the rest of our life.
Now allow me some room for reminiscing because this is what will make anyone understand why this would be a dream hunt. As a young man, around the age of six or eight before hunting was even an option for me, my father would take me for walks in the woods and show me different types of wildlife and vegitation. I learned what different plants were and which animals used those plants as food. My father also instilled in me the value of nature and that it was my responsibility to preserve nature and leave as little impact as I could while I was there. A phrase that sticks in my head while hunting today is...‘Always leave things a little better than you found it.’ We would often just sit and watch squirrels forage among the leaves and build nests high in the canopy of the trees. In the fall we would watch deer herds feed and play in the open fields. These times never seemed as important or benificial to me as they do now. My brother, who is three years younger, got to the age where it was his turn to learn about the wilderness as I had. Now it was the three of us on those same walks but along with my father, I got to pass the information my father had given me on to my brother.
Once I reached the age I could go hunting with my father, he took time once again to show me how to shoot a rifle and more importantly safety. As both my brother and I got older, our lives turned toward hanging out with friends and doing things teenagers do rather than going for a walk with dad. Every year around Thanksgiving I would see my father go to the basement and start to pull out orange hats, jackets and gloves and I would get excited because I knew deer season was coming and I would get to miss school on Monday to go hunting with my father and brother. We never had the money for the new gear but my father insisted that being cold was part of the experience...I can laugh about that now.
The first year I killed a deer,my father was at my side glowing with pride and excitement...showing me how to field dress the animal and get it out of the woods so the meat would not spoil. He explained how hunting is not just killing the animal to kill it but rather a sport that evolved from necessity to provide food and clothing for a family and that no part of the animal should be wasted.
My brother and I continued to get older, as did my father. Each and every year on the first Monday after Thanksgiving my brother, my father and I are together somewhere in the woods waiting to see that trophy in our crosshairs. It did not matter that we were away at college or were scheduled to work. Every year we were together hunting as we had the year before.
I got married in 2003 and my brother-in-law joined in our hunts with my father. Because I was older and could understand life a little better, I was witness to something I had not seen before. My father once again got to pass on his knowledge of the outdoors to my brother-in-law. I witnessed a true friendship evolve between two grown men and all it took was a day in the woods.
In 2005 my father was diagnosed with cancer. Thanksgiving was just around the corner and the excitement of deer season was in the air. My brother, brother-in-law , and I were all getting ready as usual but my father wasn't going to make this year. The treatments had made him too weak to go. As we loaded in the truck early in the morning my father came out and wished us luck and told us to be safe. I could see the dissapointment in his eyes and hear it in his voice that he was not able to go. This was the first year in roughly 20 years we were not with my father in the woods on that opening day. As we pulled away from the house the look on my father's face was heart wrenching. We didn't spend much time hunting that day. All of us sat in the cold wishing dad was with us and hoping that this was not going to be how hunting was going to be for the years ahead.
We all called off the hunt early and returned home. We were sitting around watching a movie called ‘The Edge’. The movie was about a bear hunt in Alaska and the lodge was a log cabin on a lake. I heard my father saying how much he would enjoy a hunt like that some day. Now you see where I got the idea for my dream hunt.
Currently, my Brother lives in Maryland, my brother-in-law lives in Florida, and my father and I both live in Pennsylvania. My father has beat the cancer and will once again join the rest of us in the woods on the first day of deer season this year. Though we all live a good distance from one another, we know that we will all be together and making more memories hunting.
The reason I selected a grizzly hunt in Alaska is twofold. One reason is that it will allow me to take that memory of sitting on the couch watching ‘The Edge’ rather that hunting and turn it into a positive experience. Hearing my father say he would like to go on a bear hunt in Alaska and then me being able to give him that would be amazing. The second reason for selecting this hunt is a little more selfish. The year my father was absent from the hunt made me realize that someday he will no longer be hunting with us at all. All the knowledge and memories that years of hunting with my father has given me will be the only thing I have to take with me on those cold November mornings. This dream hunt would give us all memories that we could hold dear in our heart and stories of family and friendship that can be passed on to our children in hopes that we can give them as much as my father had given to us in our years hunting together.”